imperialism
Dr. Tomasz Pierscionek: “Capitalism is a failing system unable to solve major global problems”
Dr Tomasz Pierscionek. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You have worked on the theme of the Western Left. According to you, can we say that this left is in crisis?
Dr. Tomasz Pierscionek: The past decade of austerity, which has seen the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else and demonstrated that capitalism is a failing system unable to solve major global problems, provides an opportunity for the Left to demonstrate alternate programmes that benefit the majority rather than a wealthy and powerful minority. In Western Europe and the US, affected by years of indoctrination about the ‘failures’ of socialism, left-wing politicians and parties of labour have been cautious not too appear too left-wing and face the wrath of the rich and their media auxiliaries. In this way, they have failed to realise the potential of the Left to explain and advocate for socialist ideas and directly challenge capitalism. Far from being Marxists, as demonised by the media, the leaders of the Western Left have adopted the half-baked ideas of left of centre social-democracy – ie: let’s tinker at the edges of capitalism and smooth out its rougher bits whilst leaving its fundamental principles unchanged. Lire la suite »
Dr. T. J. Coles: “Unlike war, peace is not a profitable pursuit”
Dr. T. J. Coles. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: In your masterful book « Britain’s Secret Wars », you demonstrate the hidden face of British politics and its direct involvement in major conflicts via its intelligence services. Do not you think that Britain is responsible, like its US ally, for the chaos that reigns in areas like the Middle East and the Sahel?
Dr. T. J. Coles: Yes. Britain has both historic and contemporary responsibilities for much of the carnage in the Middle East, Central Asia, and elsewhere. There are different degrees of responsibility. When a gang commits a crime, for example a murder and armed robbery, each member of the gang is sentenced by a court of law in accordance with the degree of their participation in the crime. The person who pulled the trigger is the murderer, their associate is the accomplice, and so on. The same principle applies, or if we care about morality should apply, to international affairs. At the moment, the US is the global superpower, so the US bears most of the responsibility for invading Afghanistan, firing drones at Pakistanis, Somalis, and Yemenis, invading Iraq, and using proxy terrorists in Syria and Libya. Lire la suite »
Mike Ferner: “It is a function of our lack of democracy that the U.S. foreign policy is so militaristic and destructive.”
Mike Ferner. DR
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: In your opinion, is the United States of America a true democracy or is it a plutocratic regime?
Mike Ferner: The U.S. was never intended to be a true democracy.
First of all, it is a republic, meaning elected representatives, not people directly,institute the laws. This was modified somewhat when some states instituted initiative and referendum laws, allowing citizens to put proposed legislation directly to the voters by getting large numbers of signatures on petitions. Lire la suite »
Dr. Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison: “The pacification of Algeria was not a long calm river, on the contrary”
Dr. Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: You wrote « Coloniser. Exterminer« . In your opinion, was Algeria a colonial laboratory?
Dr. Olivier Le Cour Grandmaison: Yes, we can indeed consider that Algeria has been a kind of laboratory for the elaboration of a certain number of techniques of war that can be described as counter-revolutionary war and repressive techniques, particularly after the appointment of Bugeaud as governor general of Algeria in 1840. The purpose of the appointment is to carry out what the military and political leaders of the time have already called « the pacification of Algeria » and to do this, General Bugeaud will employ a number of methods of warfare and repressive techniques among which raids whose it must be specified that they sometimes lead to the destruction of entire villages and oases, the aim being to expel « indigenous » populations, as it is said at the time, and, as it is also very commonly said, to repress the « Arabs » to drive them out of the territories they occupied until now so that Europeans in general and the French in particular, the settlers, could settle in a « pacified » environment. Lire la suite »
Dr. Saïd Bouamama: “Bouteflika symbolizes the freezing of several trends and it does not make it possible to build anything.”
Fanon said: « pay attention to the emergence of business managers of the West in the new independent countries »
Dr. Saïd Bouamama. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: What is your reading of the geopolitical situation that prevails in Syria at the moment?
Dr. Saïd Bouamama: The situation in Syria is at first a situation of failure of imperialism. In fact, what is happening in Syria has been an attempt to destabilize the Syrian state by supporting jihadist groups. We think what we want from Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but he has made a great service to mankind by stopping this destabilization and this attempt to balkanize Syria. Because in reality, it is a balkanization. If we look at all the last wars, what I call the new colonial wars, what is left? Iraq is cut in pieces, Afghanistan is a complete chaos, in Somalia it is the slaughter, and Sudan is cut in two. Lire la suite »
Peter Mertens: “There is a counter-power that exists on the world scale as long as the Palestinian people will resist”
Peter Mertens. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: What do you think of the revival of populist and neo-Nazi movements in Europe in general and in Belgium in particular?
Peter Mertens: After the crisis of overproduction in 1973 and the financial bubble that erupted in 2008 by banks and speculators, we knew very well that the world could only take two directions, either the camp of the establishment itself and therefore of the elite who wanted to go even further and who wanted to install an unlimited capitalism, that is to say without counter-powers, without unions, without communist party, without alternatives, in eliminating the very idea of an alternative, unions and organized labor movements and install a kind of oligarchy, that is, an open dictatorship of capital. On the other hand, we can also see that the alternative movement, that is to say the workers’ movement and the communist forces, the Marxist forces, are seeking their way to remobilize themselves and remobilize the working class in the broad sense of the term. Lire la suite »
Prof. Robert Jensen: “There clearly is no decent human future possible in capitalism”
Prof. Robert Jensen. DR.
Mohsen Abdelmoumen: How do you explain the silence of Western media and governments regarding the massacre of the people of Yemen by the coalition led by Saudi Arabia, strategic ally of the US?
Prof. Robert Jensen: I am not an expert on the war in Yemen, but it is clear that the Saudi-led coalition has used tactics that have caused widespread civilian suffering. The US media have not completely avoided the story but also have not focused on those humanitarian disasters in the same way they would if the forces responsible were US enemies. This is a longstanding pattern, what Ed Herman and Noam Chomsky called the distinction between “worthy” and “unworthy” victims, depending on who is doing the killing. It’s one way we see that an allegedly “objective” US news media tends to fall in line behind US foreign policy. Lire la suite »
